Feb 5 (Reuters) - Aluminum processor Aleris Corp IPO-ARS.N filed on Thursday to withdraw its $500 million initial public offering, nearly three years after postponing the listing due to market conditions.

Cleveland, Ohio-based Aleris had planned to list 31.3 million shares in a price range of $15 to $17. At the upper end of this range, the company would have been valued at about $1.8 billion.

The withdrawal is a blow to the private equity firms that own Aleris. Oaktree Capital Management LP, a unit of Oaktree Capital Group LLC, and Apollo Global Management are among its biggest shareholders.

Apollo declined to comment on the withdrawal of the IPO filing. Neither Aleris nor Oaktree were available for comment.

Aleris initially filed to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2011.

When it postponed the offering a year later, Reuters reported that investors might have been put off by its exposure to China and its reliance on European auto makers, to which it supplies recycled aluminum alloy. (reut.rs/1Kw3MWb)

Aleris filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009 as a result of the global recession, allowing debt investors to seize control from TPG Capital LP.

J.P. Morgan, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs were the underwriters of the proposed offering. (Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri in Bengaluru; Editing by Robin Paxton)